The problem with your analogy is that super markets don't have a monopoly. Within 3 miles of where I live, I could get groceries at Sak'n'Save, WinCo, Albertson's, Raley's, Smith's, a handful of little ethnic grocery stores, or even Wal-Mart. All of these businesses are competing against eachother -- it is not a monopoly. Who is competing against TicketMaster?
Jeez... Damned if you do, damned if you don't. If someone makes a sarcastic comment, and leaves off tags, someone will flame him for being an idiot. If someone makes a sarcastic comment, and included sarcasm tags, he gets flamed for including unnecessary comments. Christ, people, relax!
You are, in fact, well within your right to create a company that grows and sells apples, and call it "Apple." It is a trademark issue. Trademarks, unlike copyrights, only apply to one particular area. I can trademark the term "FooBar" and sell oranges, if I want, and you could still sell books under the trademarked term "FooBar." As long as there is no chance of a consumer confusing my FooBar with your FooBar, we are both allowed to use the term.
Indeed, I tend to revert what I can. Unfortunately, every time the distric IT folk come out to deal with the compies, they reset it... it is a pain in the ass.
1) He is interested in counting the number of unique visitors to a site. Not unique computers. If you visit a site from a home computer, a work computer, and a computer at some internet cafe somewhere, it will show up as three different IPs, and be counted as three different unique visitors. However, you are only one person, so, if we are concerned with counting unique visitors, it has just overcounted you by 2.
2) Also, even if you are using just one computer, there is a high likelihood that your IP will change over the couse of a month (if not more often). Assuming you are on DSL (cable, as well, but he ignores this fact), you are probably getting an IP address via DHCP, which means that the server issueing that address could issue a new one every time you connect. Over the course of a month, you may get several addresses, each one counting as a unique visitor. Again, you are being overcounted.
You seem to have failed to understand the point that I was making. The original post complained that the adverts did not provide any good reasons why one should buy a Mac. I suggested several good reasons from the commercials, then suggested that those reasons are perfectly good for the majority of computer users, though they may not cut it as far as a geek is concerned. Again, most of the world is not made up of geeks, and most people, they are good enough.
My mother had been using Windows for years. Two years ago, she was looking for a new computer for her email and internet usage, because her Win2k box was virtually dead from virii and spyware. I told her she ought to get a Mac, she was convinced by a salesman to buy a Linux box for $300. She plugged that in and used it twice before giving up. She then went out and got a Mac Mini. At first, she was a little confused by it, but that only lasted a few days. Now, she really, really likes the application folder, because the "stupid menu doesn't go away if accidentally click in the wrong place." She never used keyboard shortcuts in the first place, and likes the menus across the top more than right-clicking. While this is only anecdotal, my mother is a ludite, and didn't get her first computer until 2000 or 2001. She seems to hate all things computer related, yet doesn't hate the Mac nearly as much as her Windows box.
Yes, this is anecdotal. No, it is not statistically valid or significant. In that vein, let me add one more story:
I work in an elementary school, running the computer lab, and maintaining the computers on campus. This year, many of the teachers were switched from Win98 to WinXP. This was hard for them. Icons were not in the same place. Certain behaviours were different. The OS looks different. I think that these people had as hard a time switching to XP as they would have to Mac. Again, I think that the issues that you raise are relatively trivial, and are the cost of switching from any one OS to any other.
I'm a "Machead," and I don't comb my hair! Of course, I shave it all off every couple of days, so there really isn't much to comb in the first place...:)
Give me a reason to buy Apple, not a reason to leave Windows.
From the commercials:
iLife
plug-and-play peripherals
fewer viruses
ease of use
good reviews in the WSJ
Those seem like reasons. They are not really targeting the geek audience with those reasons, which might be why you don't care. But, to someone like my mother, they seem like very good reasons.
Perhaps because the adverts are on television? While you could watch the ads on your computer (assuming you have a Mac or Windows box), they are also (perhaps even primarily) being aired on television.
...using the defacto standard "ctrl-c & ctrl-v" type shortcut keys...
Why? On a Mac, I can use my thumb to hit the command key (the clover leaf), and use any other finger to hit any other key. It is a very simple reach, and works even on my laptop, where the size of the keyboard limits me to only one command key. Under windows (or Linux, for that matter), the control key requires a pinky finger, and a rather large reach (compared to, say, the shift keys). I much prefer the modifier key right next to the space bar. I am glad that Apple have decided not to change this. And, honestly, it doesn't take that long to get used to a different system, and if you are constantly switching back and forth from one kind of machine to another (I have Windows machines at work, Macs at home), it ceases to cause any confusion after a day or two.
In fact, most of your complaints are fairly trivial, and represent the cost of moving from one OS to another as much as anything else. Why would we need an uninstaller on a Mac? Most, if not all, dependencies are contained in the application bundle. To uninstall a program, move it to the trash. There is no registry to get corrupted, and no.dlls. Why is a Start Menu needed? Open up a Finder window, and you have access to your applications, documents, movies, whatever. If you don't like that, launch applications from the dock. Put aliases (shortcuts) on your desktop. Hell, I suppose you could create a folder full of aliases and put that on the dock. A Start Menu really is not needed -- a couple of days to get used to the OS would likely demonstrate that. As for right-clicking, get a better mouse.
Again, the complaints that you raise seem fairly minor and trivial, and would only really bother people that have been using Windows for a long time. Apple is not really targeting the hardcore Windows market, as far as I can tell. They are trying to target those people who do not have a great deal of computer experience, like the archtypal grandmother, or the computer illiterate English major. These people are not really going to care that the keyboard shortcuts are different (how many of them even know that there are keyboard shortcuts?) or that there is no Start Menu.
Re:Annoyance as a marketing technique?
on
Explorer Destroyer
·
· Score: 1
Just so long as you don't rape them to death, eat their flesh, and sew their skins into your clothing.
Read what the gp posted one more time. He was not suggesting that two equivelant formats be used on the same disc, but that and older and a newer format be used on the same disc. A consumer could buy an HD-DVD for their DVD player, thinking that they had an HD-DVD player, and the disc would still work. The DVD format on one side would be to keep people from getting pissed off because their (not really) HD-DVD player won't play the disc. He was not talking about combining Blu-Ray and HD-DVD onto one disc.
Recreational sex probably came first. Bonobos, which are generally considered to be far less evolved than humans, practice a great deal of recreational sex. It is a tool used by groups of bonobos to relieve tension, and create social bonds. As humans are more closely related to bonobos than just about any other animal, it is likely that early humans practiced similar behaviours (similar, not identical).
Oral traditions probably came next. I can't think of any example of a society without any kind of oral traditions. Most models expect storytelling to occur with the development of language. So, stories-as-escapism probably came fairly early on in human development.
After that, psychoactive plants probably came along. They are easy to harvest, and easy to discover. It is very likely that the discovery of psycoactive plants predates agriculture, thus alcohol. Many, many "primative" societies discovered such plants.
Finally, alcohol. Alcohol was probably (like most things) and accidental discovery, and likely was not discovered until after agriculture was possible. The time needed to ferment alcohol, the grains needed to make it (or fruits), and the craft specialization required imply that alcohol was a relatively late discovery.
Internet fame is measured in minutes, huh? What does "All your base are belong to us" mean to you? Hamster Dance? Llamas? While the actual fads may have lasted for only a few months, they are still a part of our collective history and knowledge. And, somewhere along the line, a new generation of kids will find the Star Wars Kid, and it will go around the 'net once again. It may die down, but it will never truely be gone.
I would also point out that, in the US at least, bullying can be dealt with in both civil and criminal courts, and is on a regular basis. Yes, the first recourse should be to go to the parents or the administrators of a school, but that doesn't always work. And, while I am sure that the money had something to do with it, I seriously doubt it was the only, or even the most important, motivating factor.
I dig the inner child bit. I work in an elementary school -- I don't think I could do what I do and not be in touch with my inner child. However, the first of April on Slashdot tends to be more random than funny. It is like Saterday Night Live in recent years -- over the top and, ultimately, not funny. True humor comes from the appropriate application of subtlety... i.e. one or two completely random stories during the day; purposefully duping the exact same article three times during the day (but not in a row, for god's sake); intentional misspellings to tweak the grammar nazis; a story on the front page in hex... something subtle, humerous, and far less annoying.
Then I would recommend that you try it. They have a couple of rather nice beers, as well as a rather unique, very malty beverage. IMNSHO, they really can't compete with most of the American micro-breweries, but they have been around for 600+ years, and still make a fine product.
Slashdot Mirror
The problem with your analogy is that super markets don't have a monopoly. Within 3 miles of where I live, I could get groceries at Sak'n'Save, WinCo, Albertson's, Raley's, Smith's, a handful of little ethnic grocery stores, or even Wal-Mart. All of these businesses are competing against eachother -- it is not a monopoly. Who is competing against TicketMaster?
"Imagine finding that the faster way to run your Vista apps is on WINCE. Now that would be cool!"
;)
You can't sersiously be suggesting that Vista applications would be faster on a PDA running WinCE, can you?
Wario is the goatse man!
...WinCE just makes me want to wince.
Jeez... Damned if you do, damned if you don't. If someone makes a sarcastic comment, and leaves off tags, someone will flame him for being an idiot. If someone makes a sarcastic comment, and included sarcasm tags, he gets flamed for including unnecessary comments. Christ, people, relax!
You are, in fact, well within your right to create a company that grows and sells apples, and call it "Apple." It is a trademark issue. Trademarks, unlike copyrights, only apply to one particular area. I can trademark the term "FooBar" and sell oranges, if I want, and you could still sell books under the trademarked term "FooBar." As long as there is no chance of a consumer confusing my FooBar with your FooBar, we are both allowed to use the term.
Indeed, I tend to revert what I can. Unfortunately, every time the distric IT folk come out to deal with the compies, they reset it... it is a pain in the ass.
Two things:
1) He is interested in counting the number of unique visitors to a site. Not unique computers. If you visit a site from a home computer, a work computer, and a computer at some internet cafe somewhere, it will show up as three different IPs, and be counted as three different unique visitors. However, you are only one person, so, if we are concerned with counting unique visitors, it has just overcounted you by 2.
2) Also, even if you are using just one computer, there is a high likelihood that your IP will change over the couse of a month (if not more often). Assuming you are on DSL (cable, as well, but he ignores this fact), you are probably getting an IP address via DHCP, which means that the server issueing that address could issue a new one every time you connect. Over the course of a month, you may get several addresses, each one counting as a unique visitor. Again, you are being overcounted.
Yes, yes, I know... don't feed the AC trolls...
You seem to have failed to understand the point that I was making. The original post complained that the adverts did not provide any good reasons why one should buy a Mac. I suggested several good reasons from the commercials, then suggested that those reasons are perfectly good for the majority of computer users, though they may not cut it as far as a geek is concerned. Again, most of the world is not made up of geeks, and most people, they are good enough.
Again, I must respectfully disagree.
My mother had been using Windows for years. Two years ago, she was looking for a new computer for her email and internet usage, because her Win2k box was virtually dead from virii and spyware. I told her she ought to get a Mac, she was convinced by a salesman to buy a Linux box for $300. She plugged that in and used it twice before giving up. She then went out and got a Mac Mini. At first, she was a little confused by it, but that only lasted a few days. Now, she really, really likes the application folder, because the "stupid menu doesn't go away if accidentally click in the wrong place." She never used keyboard shortcuts in the first place, and likes the menus across the top more than right-clicking. While this is only anecdotal, my mother is a ludite, and didn't get her first computer until 2000 or 2001. She seems to hate all things computer related, yet doesn't hate the Mac nearly as much as her Windows box.
Yes, this is anecdotal. No, it is not statistically valid or significant. In that vein, let me add one more story:
I work in an elementary school, running the computer lab, and maintaining the computers on campus. This year, many of the teachers were switched from Win98 to WinXP. This was hard for them. Icons were not in the same place. Certain behaviours were different. The OS looks different. I think that these people had as hard a time switching to XP as they would have to Mac. Again, I think that the issues that you raise are relatively trivial, and are the cost of switching from any one OS to any other.
I'm a "Machead," and I don't comb my hair! Of course, I shave it all off every couple of days, so there really isn't much to comb in the first place... :)
Give me a reason to buy Apple, not a reason to leave Windows.
From the commercials:
iLife
plug-and-play peripherals
fewer viruses
ease of use
good reviews in the WSJ
Those seem like reasons. They are not really targeting the geek audience with those reasons, which might be why you don't care. But, to someone like my mother, they seem like very good reasons.
Perhaps because the adverts are on television? While you could watch the ads on your computer (assuming you have a Mac or Windows box), they are also (perhaps even primarily) being aired on television.
...using the defacto standard "ctrl-c & ctrl-v" type shortcut keys...
.dlls. Why is a Start Menu needed? Open up a Finder window, and you have access to your applications, documents, movies, whatever. If you don't like that, launch applications from the dock. Put aliases (shortcuts) on your desktop. Hell, I suppose you could create a folder full of aliases and put that on the dock. A Start Menu really is not needed -- a couple of days to get used to the OS would likely demonstrate that. As for right-clicking, get a better mouse.
Why? On a Mac, I can use my thumb to hit the command key (the clover leaf), and use any other finger to hit any other key. It is a very simple reach, and works even on my laptop, where the size of the keyboard limits me to only one command key. Under windows (or Linux, for that matter), the control key requires a pinky finger, and a rather large reach (compared to, say, the shift keys). I much prefer the modifier key right next to the space bar. I am glad that Apple have decided not to change this. And, honestly, it doesn't take that long to get used to a different system, and if you are constantly switching back and forth from one kind of machine to another (I have Windows machines at work, Macs at home), it ceases to cause any confusion after a day or two.
In fact, most of your complaints are fairly trivial, and represent the cost of moving from one OS to another as much as anything else. Why would we need an uninstaller on a Mac? Most, if not all, dependencies are contained in the application bundle. To uninstall a program, move it to the trash. There is no registry to get corrupted, and no
Again, the complaints that you raise seem fairly minor and trivial, and would only really bother people that have been using Windows for a long time. Apple is not really targeting the hardcore Windows market, as far as I can tell. They are trying to target those people who do not have a great deal of computer experience, like the archtypal grandmother, or the computer illiterate English major. These people are not really going to care that the keyboard shortcuts are different (how many of them even know that there are keyboard shortcuts?) or that there is no Start Menu.
Just so long as you don't rape them to death, eat their flesh, and sew their skins into your clothing.
Read what the gp posted one more time. He was not suggesting that two equivelant formats be used on the same disc, but that and older and a newer format be used on the same disc. A consumer could buy an HD-DVD for their DVD player, thinking that they had an HD-DVD player, and the disc would still work. The DVD format on one side would be to keep people from getting pissed off because their (not really) HD-DVD player won't play the disc. He was not talking about combining Blu-Ray and HD-DVD onto one disc.
Why don't you just make 10 louder?
What kind of Mac, and what do you want for it?
It's goatse.cx . And don't mention that ever again...
Internet fame is measured in minutes, huh? What does "All your base are belong to us" mean to you? Hamster Dance? Llamas? While the actual fads may have lasted for only a few months, they are still a part of our collective history and knowledge. And, somewhere along the line, a new generation of kids will find the Star Wars Kid, and it will go around the 'net once again. It may die down, but it will never truely be gone.
I would also point out that, in the US at least, bullying can be dealt with in both civil and criminal courts, and is on a regular basis. Yes, the first recourse should be to go to the parents or the administrators of a school, but that doesn't always work. And, while I am sure that the money had something to do with it, I seriously doubt it was the only, or even the most important, motivating factor.
I dig the inner child bit. I work in an elementary school -- I don't think I could do what I do and not be in touch with my inner child. However, the first of April on Slashdot tends to be more random than funny. It is like Saterday Night Live in recent years -- over the top and, ultimately, not funny. True humor comes from the appropriate application of subtlety... i.e. one or two completely random stories during the day; purposefully duping the exact same article three times during the day (but not in a row, for god's sake); intentional misspellings to tweak the grammar nazis; a story on the front page in hex... something subtle, humerous, and far less annoying.
Then I would recommend that you try it. They have a couple of rather nice beers, as well as a rather unique, very malty beverage. IMNSHO, they really can't compete with most of the American micro-breweries, but they have been around for 600+ years, and still make a fine product.
Spaten. Though it is 14th century...
But the Babelfish is kind of a dead giveaway, isn't it?